What car part would you make?

So just a hypothetical question. If you could make or have made any car part you want what would it be? It could be because the aftermarket currently doesn't offer it, you think it could and should be made better, or you just think its too damn expensive and could be made and sold cheaper. So what would it be?

I make gaskets for 1980 and 1981 Pontiac trans-am with the 301 Turbo engine, because fel-pro quit making them.

Tooling cost for the dies was about $600.00 and I have a local gasket maker crank them out in batches of 100 every couple years. A full set of four gaskets sells for $30.00

I think you should charge more...

In reply to Trans_Maro:

Interesting. I never knew the trans-am came with a turbo motor.

For my NA Miata, a transmission with a final gear, could a different 5th gear or 6th gear, that would return good hyw mpg.

It is not practical that a car this small and light turns nearly 4k rpm at 70 mpg and can't return 30 mpg.

Cheap ITB's for all the things.

In reply to Streetwiseguy:

Not sure if serious.

The tooling cost was amortised about ten years ago so I'm all good at this point.

$30.00 x 20 sets paid for the tooling. First run was 100 sets and they sold out in less than six months.

Semi serious, anyway. If you are building a good product, with no competition, you need to be priced at a point where you can happily and easily replace your tooling when it gets destroyed in a fire, and provide warranty for no nothing bozos who cook the engine and blame your gaskets. If you could buy a Felpro set for $20, your price is OK, or maybe a bit low. If they were $40, you should double (or more) your price tomorrow.

The Fel-Pro sets were around $20.00 when they were new.

It's not an engine gasket kit, those are available. This is just the four gaskets needed to mount the turbo to the intake manifold and mount the carburetor plenum to the turbo inlet.

To the O.P.

If you can't sell something for at least double what it costs you to make it, parts and labour, it's not even worth the trouble.

Shawn

The aftermarket already handles the needs for almost everyone. The key is to find something that is not available but is completely necessary for an obscure but popular automobile.

If I could find a way to make Packard V12 distributor caps at a reasonable price, I could sell tens of them for about $500.00 a piece.

When we make something for a rare car at work, we don't just make enough for the car we're working on. We will crank out ten or twenty sets of something because someone else out there needs it as bad as we do and will pay good money. This is how we keep our costs down to something almost reasonable.

One of the Duesenbergs we have came to us with a damaged front spring mount / frame horn. There was not enough material left to have it repaired so we removed both from the frame, had molds and core boxes made and cast a new pair. We can have more cast if anyone needs them. If your car has a damaged spring hanger, you need a new one or your car is just a sitmobile.

There were no spare Duesenberg heads, none. If your head was unrepairable, your car was a pumpkin, until a couple years ago. Jay Leno bankrolled have new heads cast. If you need a head, it's about $40,000.00 for a new one but at least you can get one.

A drop in, programable ECU that keeps OBD2 functionality for the 00-03 s2000. All I can do is crappy piggyback controllers because none of the stand alones do OBD2 (have to have that part to stay class legal).

I've made nearly everything for my race car which is either unavailable or so preposterously expensive from the manufacturer I can't afford it. Example: A front suspension upright broke the end of last season. From radical a set is close to $3000 shipped from the UK. And they use an oddball sized bearing that's unobtanium in the US, and 1886-89 UK Ford Fiesta XR2 brake rotors. Stupid.

So I spent my winter designing new fabricated steel uprights that accept a VW golf wheel bearing, but use the Radical hubs so I can reuse wheels and 1/2 shafts. For rotors I turned aluminum hats and had Coleman made rotor blanks. To make it all fit I swithed to Wilwood Dynapro calipers. It took an INSANE amount of time, but it's done now, the car is great, and I use $90, available in the US rotors and $18 wheel bearings. I also made my induction tract, the bodywork and other parts too numerous to remember.

I have a machine and fab shop at home, so I make everything, all the time.

Parts.

Welded:

Trial fitting rear upright:

Plated, baked, bearings in:

In reply to JohnRW1621:

5th gear is a pretty easy swap in a miata transmission. Pretty sure an rx7 5th gear set will get you close to where youll be happy.

Trans_Maro wrote: The Fel-Pro sets were around $20.00 when they were new. It's not an engine gasket kit, those are available. This is just the four gaskets needed to mount the turbo to the intake manifold and mount the carburetor plenum to the turbo inlet. To the O.P. If you can't sell something for at least double what it costs you to make it, parts and labour, it's not even worth the trouble. Shawn

Ahh. I was thinking head gaskets. Carry on!

I'd make first gen 4runner cab/hatch gaskets. No one currently makes them.

60s Lincoln Continental trunk lids

I'm considering making quality adapters to mount early 240z bumpers onto all 280z cars. I've bought just about everything currently available and it's all overpriced junk.

SAAB c900s have weak gearboxes. At stock power levels they hold up OK unless they are really old, or driven rough. The problem is that at this point all of them are old. Also, the turbo engines can easily make another 100 HP with tuning and bolt ons. The bottom ends could probably survive under double factory power levels.

Some hardcore SAAB enthusiasts have undergone a project to reproduce the factory race teams 4 SPD crash box gear set ( large gears, no synchros).They are expensive and won't solve all the faults of that gearbox.

If I had the ability, I would produce a 5 SPD constant-mesh sequential gearbox in an all new case. I would also use a commonly available differential and R&P, so that different final drive ratios and LSD types could be easily sourced. I also think that a gear set and shift forks & drum from an existing sequential box could be used, and most of the work would be in designing the cases.

The only people who would buy this gearbox would be hardcore anyway, so I'm sure they could adapt to driving a sequential with out complaining. (Honestly, a sequential has got to easier than a crash box anyway).

some device to spoof the TPS system. Anyone who has to run winter tires would buy it.

Mazda Miata rubber shift boots that don't fall apart after 6 months.

NOHOME wrote: some device to spoof the TPS system. Anyone who has to run winter tires would buy it.

I think you mean TPMS, there's no reason to spoof the TPS There are quite a few ways to do this though.

I've made a good number of parts, but the hardest to make and one of the most helpful would be drop spindles for my AE92. I'll have to design them with a solid modeling program and then send them off to be CNC'd for fat stacks of cash.

I make my own solid mounted race shifters because... I can do it for $30 and a couple hours on a manual lathe but cannot buy it for less than $400. The aftermarket is stacked with them, they are all basically the same and expensive (except the $800 one The used in his E46 which is sweet).

If the market were not already filled with them... I'd do a for profit CNC run.

I make my own adjustable suspension pieces, braces, big brake brackets, etc for the same reason but they are always FOR ME because I'm one guy with a manual lathe and welding equipment. Making lots means outsourcing machine work or tooling up my garage.

GameboyRMH wrote:

NOHOME wrote: some device to spoof the TPS system. Anyone who has to run winter tires would buy it.

I think you mean TPMS, there's no reason to spoof the TPS There are quite a few ways to do this though. I've made a good number of parts, but the hardest to make and one of the most helpful would be drop spindles for my AE92. I'll have to design them with a solid modeling program and then send them off to be CNC'd for fat stacks of cash.

You is correct. While not a huge deal, driving all winter with the light coming on after a few miles is an annoyance.

At over $200 to have a set put in the snow rims plus programing. Why cant this just be shut down?

In reply to NOHOME:

I believe it is a federal law. However, I think there are companies that make devices that will fool the system.

NOHOME wrote: some device to spoof the TPS system. Anyone who has to run winter tires would buy it.

Except those of us who would mount all 4 senders on the spare ;)

Although the Toyota ones that use wheel speed/abs would probably be good.